Miss Bala

Chapter 8: Small World

"Mommy, where are we going? Is daddy going to be there?"
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Narrators P.O.V

Lino gave a kiss on Gloria's forehead before getting out of bed. Everyone was still asleep when he left out the front door. He was thankful enough, he didn't need anyone tagging along for who he was about to see. The same year Gemma moved them out here, he discovered an old friend of his dad. Paul Calderón. He never told anyone but he learned a lot of truth behind this man, not all of it but enough. His dad was a co-founder of Las Estrellas, along with Miguel and Jose. Back then, they were just a group of guys, a club that protected this town. They weren't as bloody as the cartel but still dirty til a decision was made to get into running drugs and guns with the Lobo cartel, thus creating their own. Lino doesn't know why, but Calderón made the decision to leave Las Estrellas after Esparza died.

Lino pulled up to a house, seeing Calderón already sitting outside on the porch.

"Well, well, well. You on task or this a, uh, social call?" Paul asked, his way of greeting Lino.

"I'm just checking in." Lino gave a half smile. He knew he could take care of himself, but that never stopped him for coming back every couple of months.

"I'm fine." He sighed, looking at the scenery in front of him. He lived in a very secluded area. He wanted nothing to do Las Estrellas or Jose.

"I know you and Jose have been going at it about this whole cartel thing." This piece of information, Lino found out on his own.

"You don't know anything." Paul claimed. The history he knew goes deeper than what he told Lino. He walked back inside, leaving the door open for Lino.

"Look, I get it. You're pissed. I'm just trying to tell you my side of it." Lino explains. Ever since Lino became José's right hand and is in motion to fully run Las Estrellas, Paul has been trying to convince him to get out of the business. Lino has made some choices against it.

"Do you have a side anymore?"

"I'm sorry." It was rare to even hear these words from Lino. He headed for the door, he had nothing else to say.

"For 15 years, I gave up on this cartel." Paul hated calling it that, but that's what it now. Not his club but a cartel. These exact words stopping Lino at the door, "stayed in for as long as I could, just to keep my spot. Then you came up.  You reminded me so much of your dad. Just... it felt like maybe our ideas still had a chance."

"Well, I'm not my father." Lino's decision was made. This cartel was already in too deep and there was no backing out. They were far from it.

"Oh I'm very clear on that now."

"You need to rip him off the pedestal, Paul." Lino closed the door, "He bailed on all of us. You trying to tell me you didn't know about Emilia or her daughter?"

Emilia was a women who was having an affair with Lino's dad before he died. They had a daughter together. The affair started after Lino's little brother died of a heart defect when he was 2 months old. He left Lino and his mother Maria, alone in Tijuana.

"Emilia was a distraction. But when your brother took a turn for the worst, your dad was right back in Tijuana." Paul defended.

"Yeah, damage already done." Lino replied, remembering exactly how it was when his father came back. He'll he even remembers the pain his mother was in, having to mourn the lost of her son, alone.

"We all do damage. Character is determined on how we repair it."

"Well, he didn't repair much."